(Alliance News) - Warpaint London PLC on Friday pointed to "encouraging" UK sales growth in the first five months of the year after swinging to a loss in 2020.
The cosmetics maker, which owns the W7 and Technic brands, said sales in the first five months of 2021 were up 64% compared to the same period in 2020 and up 18% for the same period in 2019. Online sales of the company's W7 brand in first five months of 2021 were triple the "modest" sales in the same period in 2020.
Chair of Warpaint, Clive Garston, speaking at the firm's annual general meeting on Friday, highlighted the importance of the company's partnership with Tesco PLC in boosting sales. From June, the company's W7 brand is available in 1,300 Tesco store's compared to just 56 stores in June 2020. Further expansion of the W7 cosmetics displays in Tesco stores is planned for later this year.
The company shifted to focus on online sales and essential retailers, such as supermarkets, after the pandemic affected sales in 2020. In April, Warpaint reported that revenue in 2020 fell 18% to GBP40.3 million from GBP49.3 million the previous year, while the company made a pretax loss of GBP1.1 million after a pretax profit of GBP1.8 million in 2019.
Warpaint declared a final dividend of 3.0 pence per share, pending shareholder approval, bringing the total for 2020 to 5.8p per share. That's up from 1.5p per share for 2019, when there was no final dividend because of the outbreak of the pandemic.
Garston added: "I am optimistic that these positive trends will continue and with cash today of approximately GBP6.6 million and no debt, I believe we are well placed to deliver profitable future growth."
Warpaint London shares were trading up 16% at 161.90 pence each in London on Friday morning.
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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Warpaint London (W7L)